39 Facts About Aleijadinho

The main documentary source on Aleijadinho is a biographical note written only about forty years after his death.

Aleijadinho's trajectory is reconstructed mainly through the works he left behind, although even in this context his contribution is controversial, since the attribution of authorship for most of the more than four hundred creations that exist today associated with his name was made without any documentary evidence, based only on stylistic similarity with documented pieces.

The memorandum, written while Aleijadinho was still alive, contained a description of the artist's most notable works and some biographical indications, and was partly based on it that Bretas wrote Tracos biograficos relativos ao finado Antonio Francisco Lisboa, distinto escultor mineiro, mais conhecido pelo apelido de Aleijadinho, where he reproduced excerpts from the original document, which was later lost.

The 1738 date is accepted by the Aleijadinho Museum, located in Ouro Preto, and according to biographer Silvio de Vasconcelos, the original manuscript by Bretas, found in the archives of the Archdiocese of Mariana, refers the birth to 1738, warning that the date corresponds to that recorded on Aleijadinho's death certificate; the reason for the discrepancy between the dates in the manuscript and the booklet that was printed is unclear.

In 1738 Aleijadinho's father married Maria Antonia de Sao Pedro, an Azorean, and with her he gave Aleijadinho four half-siblings, and it was in this family that the artist grew up.

Aleijadinho collaborated with Jose Coelho Noronha in the work of carving the altars of the Mother Church of Caete, his father's project.

Aleijadinho would have been obliged to answer the call, even traveling to Rio de Janeiro, but then he would have been dismissed.

Aleijadinho later abandoned him and took the child to Rio de Janeiro, where he later became an artisan.

Until then, according to Bretas, Aleijadinho had enjoyed good health and the pleasures of the popular parties and dances, but from 1777 onwards, signs of a serious illness began to appear.

In 1796 Aleijadinho received another commission of great importance, for the realization of sculptures of the Via Sacra and the Prophets for the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus of Matosinhos, in Congonhas, considered to be his masterpiece.

Aleijadinho moved to a house near the Church of Our Lady of Carmel in Ouro Preto, to supervise the works that were in charge of his disciple Justino de Almeida.

Aleijadinho was buried in the Mother Church of Antonio Dias, in a tomb next to the altar of Our Lady of the Good Death.

Aleijadinho always worked under the commission regime, earning half an eighth of gold a day, but he did not accumulate a fortune, rather, it is said that he was careless with money, being robbed several times.

Aleijadinho kept three slaves: Mauricio, his main helper with whom he shared his earnings, plus Agostinho, a carving assistant, and Januario, who guided the donkey he used to go around on.

Aleijadinho began to prefer to work at night, when he could not be seen easily, and inside a space closed by awnings.

John Bury says that the version that presents him without hands originated with John Luccock, who visited Minas Gerais in 1818, and is repeated by many others, but Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, for example, who was there at the same time, mentioned that Aleijadinho had preserved his hands, albeit paralyzed, a version repeated by Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege.

Aleijadinho's illness became an important element in this magnified picture.

Aleijadinho's formation is obscured in order to fix the idea of the uncultivated genius; his condition as a mulatto is noted to highlight his accomplishments within a slave-owning community; the collective nature of the artistic work is completely erased so that the individual assumes a demiurgical aspect; the effect of the disease is amplified so that the superhuman effort of his work becomes clear and so that beauty is highlighted in the frame of leprosy.

The researcher draws attention to the documentary evidence of receipts signed in 1796, in which Aleijadinho's handwriting is still firm and clear.

Chartier, Hansen, Grammont and others have echoed the same arguments as Gomes Junior; Barretto added that the figure of Aleijadinho is currently a decoy for tourism in Ouro Preto to such an extent that his illness, represented in the books, is "commercialized" in some tourist spots in the city.

Aleijadinho worked during the transition period from Baroque to Rococo; his work reflects characteristics of both.

The role of the brotherhoods in the social life of Minas Gerais, to which Aleijadinho connected through the Brotherhood of Sao Jose, which served mainly mulattos and attracted many carpenters, was important.

At the time when Aleijadinho worked, Minas Gerais was in a state of political and social agitation, strongly pressured by the Portuguese Crown, which wanted the gold from the mines at any cost, and due to this intolerable pressure it became the headquarters of the Minas Gerais Conspiracy.

Aleijadinho's affiliation with the aforementioned aesthetic schools is a matter of dispute; some authors even detected traces of archaic styles such as Gothic in his production, which he would have known through Florentine engravings.

Sometimes Aleijadinho is analyzed as a transitional element between Baroque and Rococo, as is the case of Bazin, Brandao, Mills, Taylor and Graham.

The spirit of Baroque was that of Catholic and imperial universality and, in that respect, Aleijadinho was a true master of that style.

Aleijadinho instinctively grasped the basic notions of Baroque in terms of movement, limitlessness and theatrical spirit, as well as the idea that all arts, architecture, sculpture, carving, gilding, painting and even ephemeral spectacles.

Aleijadinho further claimed to have "reason to suspect that there is collusion between collectors and critics to value anonymous works".

Aleijadinho worked as an architect, but the extent and nature of this activity are quite controversial.

Oral tradition holds that Aleijadinho was the author of the design for the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Ouro Preto, but in relation to it, only his participation as a decorator is documented, creating and executing altarpieces, pulpits, a doorway and a washbasin.

Aleijadinho created, as already mentioned, projects for altarpieces and chapels, which fit more in the function of the decorator-carver, even though they have architectural proportions.

Oliveira states that the comparison between the documented facade designs and what is traditionally attributed shows that they are dealing with very different stylistic universes, suggesting that the attribution of the Franciscan church of Ouro Preto to Aleijadinho is questionable to say the least.

Freyre, at the same time, identified typically folkloric roots for the constitution of his extravagant personal style, such as the satirical iconography of popular culture, marveling at the skilful way in which Aleijadinho introduced elements of the voice of the people into the universe of international Baroque high culture.

Giuseppe Ungaretti, astonished by the mystical intensity of the figures, said that "Aleijadinho's prophets are not baroque, they are biblical".

Still within the field of sculpture, there are the large reliefs that Aleijadinho sculpted for church porches, which introduced a pattern of great posterity in Brazil.

Aleijadinho transferred this model to the portals of the Franciscan churches of Ouro Preto and Sao Joao del-Rei, where the composition became much more complex and virtuosic.

Grammont, Gomes Junior, Chartier, Barretto and others warn against the perennialization of mystifying, romanticized and fanciful views about the Aleijadinho, which tend to obscure his correct contextualization and the clear understanding of his artistic stature and the extent of his originality, from the copious folklore that, since the Vargas Era, both the officials and the people have been creating around his little-known and mysterious figure, elevating him to the level of a national hero.

Aleijadinho has already been portrayed as a character in cinema and television: in 1915 Guelfo Andalo directed the first biopic about the artist, in 1968 he was portrayed by Geraldo Del Rey in the film Cristo de Lama, Mauricio Goncalves in the film Aleijadinho - Paixao, Gloria e Suplicio and Stenio Garcia in a Special Case on TV Globo.

In 1978 Aleijadinho was the subject of a documentary directed by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and narrated by Ferreira Gullar.